Malcolm Bell, son of Middlesbrough MP Stuart Bell, has admitted stealing more than £2,000 from a politician. He was due to appear before Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London for sentencing.

Bell has been warned he could face a possible jail sentence for taking blank cheques from the office of George Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin.

The 19-year-old had been working for his father as a House of Commons researcher.

His actions were a desperate attempt to escape from a "life which wasn't quite of his choosing", the court was told last month.

Bell stole four cheques from Mr Galloway's office in Portcullis House, near the Houses of Parliament, on August 31 last year.

He wrote out one for £1,788 and used it to buy an Egyptian figurine over the Internet, posing in email correspondence as a Doctor Mustafa.

He made out another one to himself for £350, which was transferred to his current account, and another for £500, which the bank refused to cash.

Bell, of Richmond, Surrey, admitted theft, obtaining property by deception, obtaining a money transfer by deception, and attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception. The case was previously adjourned for pre-sentence reports.